{"id":837,"date":"2011-08-24T11:26:30","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T15:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramchal.wordpress.com\/?p=837"},"modified":"2011-08-24T11:26:30","modified_gmt":"2011-08-24T15:26:30","slug":"tzimtzum-the-solution-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/2011\/08\/24\/tzimtzum-the-solution-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Tzimtzum: the solution (part 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final and most fulsome series of statements about the makeup and purpose of the Tzimtzum<\/em> is offered in Petach<\/em> 30. They hearken back to remarks made earlier on in this work about why one should study Kabbalah [1], and about God\u2019s intentions for the universe. But Ramchal adds other elements.<\/p>\n

Rooted in the Tzimtzum<\/em><\/strong> is the principle that everything <\/strong>in the created world would follow a natural course until the end. <\/strong>He\u2019ll soon explain it to mean something else, but part of the idea of things \u201cfollowing a natural course\u201d has to do with the notion that offered in his comments that \u201cthe first thing to be understood about the governance of the universe\u201d, which is our aim here in this work of Kabbalah, is that the governance of the universe \u201cdepends on (the existence of) levels and measurements\u201d — on finitude, definition, and limitations, which are all lacking in God\u2019s presence, and which were only established by reality of the Tzimtzum<\/em>. His remark here in the body of the Petach<\/em> about things following a natural course, though, is this one.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s to say, that flaws would exist<\/strong> in the course of things but that in the end — when God’s Yichud<\/em> will be seen <\/strong>(or \u201cexposed\u201d if you will) for what it is — everything would return to its ultimate perfection.<\/strong> We\u2019d addressed that major theme before, too [2]. In other words, God saw to it that there\u2019d come to be a system of right and wrong, and that a hard-fought and intense struggle between the two would go on until the end — but that there would be an end, indeed, and that right will ultimately triumph [3]. (He thus understands the term \u201ca natural course\u201d as referring to a so-very-human and imperfect state of being that will ultimately give way to a Divine state.)<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See our extended discussion of this in 1:1 and in note 2 there. His statement here, in his comments, is that \u201cthe science of Kabbalah in its entirety is intended to (help us) understand the governance of the Supreme Will, God\u2019s purpose for having created all the various creature phenomena, what He expects of them, what will come about at the end of all the sequences of the universe, and how to explain all of these odd sequences of events\u201d.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See 1:4 and the various notes there, and see Ramchal\u2019s many remarks about this in his comments to this Petach<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d add that Ramchal also engages in a long-enough analysis of the source, make-up, and role of evil and wrongdoing in his comments here that the reader would do well to study. This theme became eminently important to Kabbalists and Chassidic thinkers in Ramchal\u2019s time and soon afterwards (and continues to be now, to some degree) because of the statements of disciples of the notorious Sabbatei Tzvi. But a full discussion of all that would take us far afield so we\u2019ll mostly avoid it in this work; but we\u2019ll touch on some of it.<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 See 1:5 and the various notes there. We\u2019d again advise the reader to see Ramchal\u2019s many remarks in his comments here about this.<\/p>\n

(c) 2011 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org<\/a><\/p>\n

———————————————————-<\/p>\n

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here<\/a> at a discount.<\/p>\n

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here<\/a> at a discount as well.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).<\/p>\n

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final and most fulsome series of statements about the makeup and purpose of the Tzimtzum is offered in Petach 30. They hearken back to remarks made earlier on in this work about why one should study Kabbalah [1], and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/ramchal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}